Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

LOVE IN A BUNGALOW —UNIVERSAL Tlie Cast: Nan Grey, Kent Taylor. Dorothea Kent, Hobart Cavanaugh, Jack Smart, Minerva Urecal, David Oliver, Louise Beavers. Producer: E. M. Asher Director: Ray McCarey. Original Story: Eleanor Griffin. William Rankin. Photography: Milton Krasner. What it's about: Mary Callahan (Nan Grey), hostess in a model bungalow, finds an intruder in the person of Jeff Langan, jobless supersalesman, when she arrives one morning. They strike up a friendship. One evening they hear the announcement of a prize contest over the radio for the best letter from a young married couple telling why they consider themselves the world’s happiest husband and wife. Mary and Jeff send a letter, then forget about it until Mary is notified they have won, and that the donors are coming for dinner. Complications arise when she and Jeff are forced to dig up a spurious family to live up to the letter. The real owners of the house and the borrowed children turn up during the dinner, but the prize donors give Mary and Jeff the money for their courage and resourcefulness. WHAT to do and HOW to do it: Featuring Nan Grey, who was one of the “Three Smart Girls” in that Universal picture, and Kent Taylor, who is steadily growing in popularity, this should prove a pleasing comedy for filmgoers of lighter tastes. Give Taylor, Miss Grey and Hobart Cavanaugh advertising and marquee credits on the production. MODEL HOME ANGLE The picture's action is hinged on the happening which takes place in a model bungalow, providing many excellent tieups along this angle. Chief among these is the promotion of a model home contest to pick what is considered the most modern and attractive small home in town. Make it a citywide scheme, asking one of the local architects to act as judge, and award prizes through the cooperation of local home furnishing stores. Tieups of all types can be made on the project with real estate agents, contractors, architects, furniture stores, hardware dealers, gardeners, etc. Make the boxoffice over to resemble a typical rose-covered cottage, with a little white picket fence surrounding it. Make a trailer tieup, displaying popular new models as America’s newest “bungalow on wheels.” Tie up with schools, arranging contests on the model home angle with classes in architecture, home decoration and home economics. Hold a contest similar to the one in the picture, in which local married couples submit letters telling why they consider themselves the happiest husband and wife in the world. Have the woman’s page editor of a local newspaper act as judge and award suitable prizes. "EMBARRASSING MOMENT" GAG Make the picture title the basis of a popular song-writing contest for local amateur musicians. The old “embarrassing moment” gag can be revived in connection with the discovery in the picture by the donors of the prize money that Taylor and Miss Grey are not married, and that the children and dog are just “props.” Tie the contest in with your newspaper advertising program, awarding free tickets to the best “embarrassing moment” submitted each day. Make a cooperative tieup with furniture stores in such a way that those who purchase new furniture exceeding a certain amount are given passes to the show. The furniture store buys the tickets from you at a special rate. Adlines: They Spent a Quiet Evening at Home ... in a Home That Didn't Belong to Them! They Won $5,000 for Being the World’s Happiest Husband and Wife . . . When They’d Only Known Eaeh Other 24 Hi»urs . . . and Weren’t .Marrieil ! The World’s Perfect Couple • . • With Borrowed Children, a Borrowed Dog . . . and a House That Didn’t Belong to Them! They Had to Get Married ... to Win .$.5,000 for Being the World's Happiest Husband and Wife! She Kept House in a Model Bungalow . . . and Made Believe It Was Hers! BOXOFFICE :: May 15, 1937